The present invention relates generally to spacecraft, and more specifically, to the transfer of heat from a remote heat source to a thermal radiator using a loop heat pipe.
The assignee of the present invention manufactures and deploys spacecraft into geosynchronous and low earth orbits. Such spacecraft use one or more radiator systems to dissipate heat generated by equipment on the spacecraft. The radiator systems transfer thermal energy to radiator panels where it is radiated into space.
Many times on spacecraft, a heat dissipating component is not conveniently located near a thermal radiator. The heat needs to be transferred to the thermal radiator to appropriately dissipate the heat. Conventional heat transfer systems used heat straps and conventional rigid heat pipes (fixed conductance heat pipes) to solve the heat transfer problem. It would be advantageous to have an improved way to transfer the heat that is more weight efficient and has less impact on the overall spacecraft configuration.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide heat transfer systems and methods that transfer heat from a remotely located heat source to a spacecraft thermal radiator or other heat dissipating apparatus.